The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Congress groupism to the fore again

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 14, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Congress groupism to the fore again

S. Vydhianathan

Vasan's absence at meetings interpreted differently

CHENNAI: Groupism in the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee is coming to the fore again.

Former TNCC president G. K. Vasan was conspicuous by his absence at the Kamaraj birth anniversary celebrations, organised by the TNCC in July, and at a meeting held at Satyamurthi Bhavan on Saturday to discuss the party's strategy for the local body elections.

At Saturday's meeting, all prominent leaders, including Union Ministers P. Chidambaram, Mani Shankar Aiyar, and E. V. K. S. Elangovan, and Jayanthi Natarajan were present.

Though TNCC president M. Krishnasswamy, later, told newsmen that Mr. Vasan had telephoned him from Delhi, expressing his inability to attend the meeting because of an official engagement, other senior leaders called it a "boycott."

A few party leaders close to Mr. Krishnasswamy said Mr. Vasan was running a parallel organisation.

According to them, he never came to the party headquarters whenever he was in the city but would meet partymen in his office at Abiramapuram. But sources close to Mr. Vasan denied that he had "boycotted" the meetings.

On both the occasions, he had sent his representatives and informed the TNCC president in advance about his inability to attend the meetings. Again, it was not true that Mr. Vasan was running a parallel organisation. Whenever he was in the city, hundreds of his followers from different parts of the State wanted to meet him. For their convenience, he used to be in his city office to receive petitions. However, partymen close to Mr. Vasan concede that he is not on the best of terms with the TNCC president.

The rift began when Mr. Krishnasswamy led a delegation of partymen to New Delhi and presented a memorandum against Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily and Mr. Vasan. The memorandum said the party would have won more seats but for the "interference" of these two leaders in the selection of candidates. The two influenced the high command in denying tickets to those who had good prospects.

They asked how it was possible for Mr. Vasan to work with a leader, who had demanded action against him.

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